Abstract

Granular matter, in its densely random packed state, is commonly found in numerous physical, biological and industrial systems. Improving our understanding of such packings has wide spread applicability, from simple issues of grain transportation, to large geological events such as landslides. We have studied the properties of dense jammed packings for an extensive range of three‐dimensional particle shapes. We employ super‐quadric particles, which allow us to vary the particle’s aspect ratio, surface curvature and blockiness. We explore how the individual particle shape affects both the macroscopic and the local configurational properties of the system, smoothly transitioning from spherical particles possessing only translational degrees of freedom to large aspect ratio non‐spherical grains where rotational degrees of freedom are highly important. Finally, we demonstrate how a fundamental understanding of the role of particle shape in granular packings allows us to implement better communition models in DEM simulations, where particle breakage occurs and generates packings of fragments with realistic size and shape distributions.